


Imagine This Fic Has A Wicked Cool And Insightful Title

by John_Q_Sample



Category: Psychonauts (Video Games), Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Flowers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, lilies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23165173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Q_Sample/pseuds/John_Q_Sample
Summary: Boris Habit and Caligosto Loboto were never popular, so they're happy to have each other as friends and neighbors.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Imagine This Fic Has A Wicked Cool And Insightful Title

The Habits move in from Russia and take up the house directly across the street from the Lobotos. The Habits are two doctors and a six-year-old covered in unexplained bruises. His name is Boris. Cali, being the same age and (this he learns at the start of the school year) equally unpopular in school, loves to hang out with him.

They do everything together. One day Cali takes Boris to the lake with all of his toy boats. The next, Boris takes Cali out to pick wildflowers in the meadow. Although they hardly have any interests in common, they always find something to do.

At age ten Boris even lets Cali in on Project Grow A Flower To Make My Parents Smile!!! (The three exclamation points are essential to the top-secret, high-stakes mission.) Cali doesn't know much about flowers beyond that he enjoys the occasional floral pattern for clothing and bed sheets, but he's happy to help, or to listen to Boris ramble about the wonderful progress his lily is making.

Then the project goes awry, and Boris comes to Cali's house crying and bleeding from the spot where a tooth went missing suddenly. Cali's parents are at work already, so he grabs an ice pack from the freezer and takes Boris upstairs to the restroom.

There are two reasons for this: One, Boris can wash off the blood on his face in the sink. Two, if Cali ever needs to clear his head, he likes to sit in the bathtub. With or without water.

He instructs Boris to wash off the blood in the sink, then gets a washcloth to put around the ice pack. Boris takes it and presses it to his lips.

Cali moves to go sit down in the bathtub.

Boris gives him an odd look, then follows. They sit across each other, with Boris sniffling quietly for a few moments.

"Dad hated Lily," he says, wiping his eyes. "He said boys shouldn't have flowers. Or kiss them to help them grow."

Cali's had his suspicions that the Habit parents were _not great parents_ , perhaps even _unpleasant_ _people_. This confirms it.

"Lily's still there. And Dad's still there! He's gonna get rid of him!"

"We can get him," Cali says, suddenly filled with determination.

Boris begins to cry harder. "I don't wanna go back!"

"We don't have to go _inside_."

Boris thinks about it. He thinks about that time they were at the lake and Cali started levitating his boats. He nods.

They jump out of the tub and run towards the house.

Once on the front lawn, they drop down so nobody can see them in the windows. Boris crawls around the side and peers into a window. He ducks and presses a pointer finger to his lips. Cali nods and hides alongside him.

Boris squeezes his eyes shut and listens. There are footsteps that he can barely hear, but they're getting quieter. Though silently panicking, he takes the risk of looking into once more, then visibly relaxes when he finds the empty room.

"There," Boris says, pressing his finger to the glass.

Cali picks himself up and looks into the room. Lily's in bad shape, a droopy flower in a pile of dirt. Dr. Dad Habit is probably going to get something to clean it up, or going to find Boris to make _him_ clean it up.

Cali focuses on the window and unlocks it, then slides it open a little bit. Then he focuses on the flower. Lily wobbles a little bit and slides towards them, then goes limp again.

Boris glances over at Cali and whispers, "You don't have to. It's just a silly lily."

Cali says, "Nonsense."

He's always saying fancy words like that, which is one of the things Boris loves about talking to him. He watches as Cali starts over with new determination, pressing two fingers to his temple and bringing the flower towards him.

"Catch it!"

Boris reaches out and grabs the flower. Immediately, they flee, not bothering to close the window and not worrying about stealth under the assumption that they'll just move so quickly that they can't possibly get caught.

Which they do. In under a minute they're back in the Loboto household. Cali brings Boris towards the garage to grab some of Mom Loboto's gardening supplies, and then they run back up to the bathtub so Cali can _focus_ and help get this flower fixed.

By the end of the botanical surgery, lily is still drooping rather severely, but he's has new dirt in a pot (Cali reminds himself to apologize to Mom Loboto for stealing the pot later).

Boris plants a kiss on the flower's petals, then sets it aside and pulls Cali into a hug.

"You saved him!"

From then on lily lives a life of total seclusion in the back of Boris's closet. It's not ideal for a growing flower, but it prevents Dr. Dad Habit's discovery of him. Plus, any time Dr. Dad and Mom Habits are at work, and Mom and Dr. Dad Lobotos are at work as well, and the two boys are home from school, they can bring the lily out without worrying about it.

This doesn't happen often, though, so they spend their time with the usual discussions on (other) flowers and fish and dentistry, sometimes, because Cali's begun to be interested in it. Boris only cares about helping people smile by fixing their teeth, which he wishes could happen to him someday.

(Cali notes that later Boris comes to school missing a few more teeth, amid the usual bruises he's always hiding with his sweaters.)

It's not a full year after the rescue of the lily that Cali comes to Boris with bad news.

"Mom saw me bending spoons," he says.

Boris tilts his head to the side.

"She started screaming. Dad said he was going to bring me to the hospital tomorrow. So I won't go to school."

Boris fidgets nervously.

"They said they're going to fix my brain."

Spending a whole day alone at school with only Martha to talk to doesn't even amount to the fear Boris feels for his friend. He knows that some of Cali's capabilities aren't _normal_ (he certainly can't do anything like that), but now he's faced with the reality that they're not _liked_ either.

And the worst part? Not liked by _parents_. Some of the meanest and most powerful people in the world.

At the risk of getting yelled at by Dr. Mom and Dad Habits, Boris waits near his friend's house at the end of the school day. Soon, a car comes up and parks in the driveway. Cali climbs out of the backseat, and Dr. Dad Loboto steps out of the driver's seat.

"Hello, Boris," Dr. Dad Loboto says. He glances at the two boys and says, "Don't stay out too long. Cali, we're going to have a _looong_ conversation with your mother after dinner."

He draws out the word, _loooooong_ , in an annoyed and frightening manner. Boris averts his eyes and waits until he goes inside to talk.

"Did they do anything to you?"

"They looked at my brain and found out I'm a psychic."

Boris puts a hand to his mouth. Okay, he's heard the word before, usually in tense political debates at family dinners that he now tries to duck out of. He's just never properly connected the term with his friend's abilities.

It makes sense, in hindsight. He's been stupid.

"What are they gonna do?"

"Nothing until Dad says."

Over the next few days, the usually talkative boy remains stubbornly silent on any matter that concerns his parents, the hospital, or psychics.

Then one day, he's gone. Not in his house, not on the bus, and not at school.

It's Martha who asks, "Where's your creepy blue friend?" and Boris shrugs, secretly resolving to investigate at the Loboto house later.

When he reaches the house after school, he finds Mom Loboto dumping several bent spoons into the trash. Spotting Boris, she gives him a tired and annoyed look.

"Are you looking for that devil child? He's gone. We sent him to the hospital to get him fixed, and he has to stay there now."

Boris stares at her. He usually thought of her as a nice person, at least nicer to Cali than his parents are to him. Now, she's no better than they are.

She pauses, holding the empty container and looking at him with an exhausted set of eyes.

Red at the rims.

"Go home, Boris."

**Author's Note:**

> i was going to have a scene where loboto comes back acting completely different, which freaks habit out, but then i started to think of those comments mom and dr. dad lobotos made about being rid of loboto. i figured maybe they lost custody of him or something, maybe he just stayed at the hospital?
> 
> i'm thinking they would meet up later though, maybe in dental school, and both be like "wow we're traumatized"


End file.
